The Government of Pakistan has conveyed to the Taliban that bilateral relations could be damaged if the group does not address increased activities by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known as the Pakistani Taliban, following its decision to break the ceasefire and restart its attacks in the country.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has stressed that Islamabad «will not turn a blind eye if it is found that the Taliban are not stopping the TTP,» before expressing concern over the group’s increased attacks from Afghan territory.
He stressed that if the Taliban decide to carry out operations against the terrorist group, Pakistan is ready to support them, Pakistan’s Geo TV reported.
On the other hand, he has called for the «release of funds» frozen to Afghanistan after the Taliban took power in August 2021, although he said they should go «to the Afghan people, not to the Taliban.» «The Taliban promised the United States and the world to act against extremist groups,» he has criticized.
The Pakistani government recently said the TTP’s decision to break the ceasefire and resume carrying out attacks in the country should be a cause for concern among the Afghan Taliban, who had been playing a mediating role in talks between Islamabad and the armed group to try to reach a peace deal.
Pakistan’s National Counter-Terrorism Authority said last week that the TTP group expanded its networks during peace talks with the government and added that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan allowed it to increase its activities in the neighboring country, nearly two weeks after the armed group announced the end of the ceasefire.
The TTP, which differs from the Afghan Taliban in organizational matters but follows the same rigorist interpretation of Sunni Islam, brings together more than a dozen Islamist militant groups operating in Pakistan, where they have killed some 70,000 people in two decades of violence.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
